Echo Mt. Closes to Freeriders

Colorado’s Echo Mountain sold in auction last week, despite earning record revenue and snow last season. The popular freestyle-driven resort will now cater to youth alpine racers as a membership-based training facility opening this November—sans jibs.

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New owner Pykkonen Capital, led by Denver local Nora Pykkonen, plans to pump $5 million into the 226-acre private property to create what she calls “the best alpine racing center” in the country. Pykkonen claims there is neither the room nor profit necessary to keep the features that drew freestyle enthusiasts to Echo.

“I’ve heard that Echo’s site is getting a lot of traffic and how upset people are, but when we looked at the numbers—it’s not feasible,” said Pykkonen, who was on the verge of moving to Vail so her 9-year-old could train in hopes of making the U.S. Ski Team. Instead, she bought Echo Mountain.

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“When we expand a few hundred vertical feet in four years, we may open a terrain park,” she said. Pykkonen hopes “that we are not creating a real division between the racers and the whole freestyle group of people on the front range.”

Joseph Casper, for one, loved Echo Mountain’s location—just 35 miles from Denver—and affordable lift tickets. “It may not be the 'monster' resort like Vail, but for someone who lives in Denver, and wanted a quick trip to enjoy a day of skiing, it was just right,” he wrote in an email.

Snowboarder Erica Davidge, a student at Colorado State University, rode and competed at the jib hill for five years. She knows many people will be devastated. “It’s unfortunate because it was cool that it was a terrain park, which appealed to a lot of youth,” she said. “It might affect some parents that don’t want to drive their kids all the way up to Breckenridge,” she said, adding, “For them this was a cheaper, more affordable, easier-to-access place that was fun for a kid to go to.”

According to Davidge, major resorts like Breck and Keystone don’t offer the good learning environment that Echo, which featured camps and lessons, did.

Other boarders, like Thomas Miller, are very disappointed. “It is the closest decent snowboarding terrain park to my house,” he wrote in an email after posting on Echo’s Facebook page, “and I'm upset that it will be converted.”

Echo’s previous owner, Jerry Pettit, never broke even in the decade that he owned the property. “We had a loyal following,” he said. “They were really good customers.”

Geoffrey Bostwick, former head park builder at Echo, has worked hard since opening day—five years ago—to grow that local, loyal base. “It doesn’t make sense for thousands of jibbers to be driving all the way up to Summit County when there could be a nice park right in their backyard,” he said. He’d like to see places like Ruby Hill open up, and to build parks at Eldora and Loveland. But as gas prices rise and lines at big resorts get longer, he digs creative solutions: “Set up a rail in your back yard; take to the streets; build your own jump in the backcountry; set up your own box at a local sledding hill. You don’t have to have a ton of money to enjoy the sport.”

Colorado's Arapahoe Basin closed Sunday, June 6, as the last resort open in the state. The Beach, the Basin's notorious parking lot apres-ski spot, was full and there was plenty of end of season pond skimming to be had. Here are the photos.

Mary Jane—named for a mining-era lady of the night—and its sister area, Winter Park, offer plenty of prospects for good skiing, including bumps and powder-filled bowls. Forming one of the closest major resorts to Denver, the two areas spread across five mountains and 3,078 acres. Add 3,060 feet of vertical, 30 feet of snowfall, and a direct train from Denver and it’s no wonder why the Front Range packs the place on Saturdays.

Who can afford to ski the real Haute Route during a recession? What we need is a domestic version, a tour connecting, say, nine ski areas in Colorado. It’s out there for any mountain yokel willing to hoist a heavy pack, bribe snowmobilers, and break trail where trails aren’t meant to be broken. It starts in luxury and ends with nearly rotten mayonnaise—conditions permitting.

Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Washington ski areas saw cold temperatures last week followed by new snow, currently creating snowpack instabilities. Avalanche warnings remain at high for mountain locations in these states.